Or-Taki? Or Owe-tacky?

Stuff news director Patrick Piercy has been grappling with Māori place names for 30 years.

OPINION: Or-Taki? Don't you mean Owe-tacky? Or are you one of those politically correct jokers?

Maybe it's because I'm a middle-aged white man that other middle-aged white men seem automatically to assume that I'll mispronounce Māori names.

Of course, often I do. But at least I try not to. And it always annoys me that other people – mostly white men of about my age – don't even make the effort, because to make the effort would be to admit they've been getting it wrong all these years.

If simple ignorance were behind it, I'd find it easier to understand and to accept. But it's not – it's wilful ignorance, and they're wearing it as........